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Green matters
00:20ABBE HOLMES Welcome to our world and your world of Green Matters. This week, Beijing, the Olympic dream goes green, and Israel gives solar power a big boost. But first, an Australian family shows we can make a difference. This Sydney home looks like any other on the street, but it's almost completely self-sufficient. The owner spent around 80,000 Australian dollars on power and water saving devices for their new home. In almost chronically drought-stricken Australia, residents are increasingly taking it upon themselves to reduce their impact on the environment. Many households utilize government rebates for energy efficient light bulbs and water saving fittings.
01:05Green matters ALICIA CAMPBELL Owner
ALICIA CAMPBELL First thing I did was to make sure all the appliances in, within the house, the toilets, um, shower heads, taps, everything I could think of, including things like the dishwasher and the washing machine were as efficient as possible for energy and electricity.
01:20ABBE HOLMES And for their new home, this family went a lot further. Before building began, a 25,000 liter sealed water storage unit was installed under the future driveway. Rainwater is fed from the roof to the underground pool, which acts as the house's in-built reservoir for drinking and household use.
01:40ALICIA CAMPBELL The reason we did it was because we knew that we wanted to make our own energy and to reduce our effect and our impact on the environment. Each house, here in Australia, apparently, produces something like 14 tons of greenhouse gases per year, and we're pretty excited that we've saved one.
02:00ABBE HOLMES A bank of solar panels generates the house's electricity, feeding excess power back to the grid. Ventilation and insulation further help control carbon emissions. And out in the garden, chickens Itchy and Scratchy, along with a large compost heap, help reduce the household's food waste.
02:20ALICIA CAMPBELL My little boy who's seven, Zane, thinks everybody's house is like this. He just doesn't understand that we feel unique at this point, and he's sees that it's essential. If we do things that he thinks are un-environmental, he's like, "but why you doing that?"
02:40ABBE HOLMES Even the family's sewage is recycled on site. Three 5,000 liter tanks, filled with bacteria, sand, and gravel, dissolve and purify the waste, and an ultraviolet filter kills any remaining germs or viruses. The water is used on the garden, but the family says it's drinking quality.
02:55ALICIA CAMPBELL The most clear difference is that we save 140,000 liters from Sydney Water's production in, um, Warragamba Dam, and, we've put 96,000 liters of wa-, very clean waste water, so it's drinking quality, into the sewer, so, that's another 96,000 we've saved, in the water sense, and we have saved one ton of greenhouse gases from being produced by having the solar panels on the roof.
03:30ABBE HOLMES For those needing help to become more eco-friendly, consultants can help ease the way.
Green matters FREDDY SHARP Easy Being Green
03:35FREDDY SHARP Sure, in the last 18 months, we've seen a real market shift in individual consumers and citizens understanding of the issue. A year and a half ago, if you mentioned cutting CO2, climate change, or global warming, people may have heard of it but may not. They wouldn't understand why they were part of it and what, what the issue was. But, certainly, since last year, the, uh, the Al Gore movie, in-, um, An Inconvenient Truth, and the Nicholas Stern Report from the UK, and action by governments and by corporations and now, by individuals, people are aware, and understand this issue quite a lot more than a year ago.
04:00WHaT can I DO?
FREDDY SHARP You can do it at the very simple level. You can take simple actions, you can convert your house to green power, which means all your electricity comes from renewable sources rather than, uh, coal-fired power stations. That has a small and po-, positive cost, maybe, $5 or $10 a week, not a huge amount. And you can simply use less energy in your home. You can use low energy light bulbs, you can use low flow shower heads, so you save water and power heating the water. You can convert to energy efficient white goods, refrigerators, TVS. Turn off your TV and your, and your hi-fi so you save on the standby power.
04:35ABBE HOLMES Despite the sunny climate, most Australians use coal-fired electricity, making them among the highest greenhouse gas emitters per capita.
04:40Green matters MICHAEL MOBBS Sustainable Homes Consultant
UNKNOWN The best thing governments can do is make it cheaper and easier. Do you know it's harder to do a sustainable house where unit offers, than it is to do an unsustainable one. How dumb is that? And the chief author of those difficulties - the governments.
05:00ABBE HOLMES By choice, however, many Australian households have taken up sustainable technologies, and the number is steadily rising.
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05:20ABBE HOLMES The Royal Horticultural Society's new Glasshouse at Wisley, England, is huge! The size of ten tennis courts, it houses exotic plants from around the world, and also gives people the chance to learn more about plants.
05:30Green matters JACKY CHAVE Education Proj. Mgr.
JACKY CHAVE The Glass has a set, which is the learning center, and the big Glass has just a fantastic learning resource. I've been with RHS for five and a half years, now, we've never had this sort of facility, before. It offers just a-, amazing opportunities for children and families and adults.
05:45ABBE HOLMES There is also a special teaching garden outside, where children can learn about planting and growing. It's a real opportunity for them to become fully immersed in nature and gardening.
06:00JACKY CHAVE This is key, this is what this was built for - primarily for school visits - it would also be used for family events and adult education events, but the focus was children, but, also secondary school children. We've got a younger group today, but it'll be secondary school children, as well.
06:15ABBE HOLMES These school children had the chance to learn about gardening and planting, from award winning designer Cleve West, who showed them the basics of how to plants into the ground correctly.
06:25Green matters CLEVE WEST Garden Designer
CLEVE WEST They're amazingly interested. I, I can't remember being that attentive when I was their a-, their age at school, and, they really put on interest at everything that's going on, I mean, naturally, they're drawn towards the water, and, uh, we've had a duck that flew in for the occasion, and we've got water boatmen, and the water's only been in there three days, so we've got quite a lot of insect life already.
06:45ABBE HOLMES The children were fascinated with all aspects of their experience and enthusiastically joined in activities.
06:55UNKNOWN It's quite nice to grow plants, and,that it can easily help the environment and beetles and bugs.
07:00UNKNOWN I like looking at the plants and creatures.
07:05UNKNOWN I enjoy looking into the pond, and, um, tasting some of the onion.
07:10ABBE HOLMES For these children, their visit to the Glasshouse was a truly hands-on experience, and an early lesson in the pleasures of planting and growing.
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07:30ABBE HOLMES The city of Paris has introduced a large scale bicycle hire scheme in a bid to cut pollution and city congestion.
07:35Green matters BERTRAND DELANOE Mayor
UNKNOWN Each time I meet with my colleagues from the big cities, worldwide, whatever their political opinion, we all have one problem to solve: we are a great number of people, in a small space.
07:55ABBE HOLMES Based on similar systems in other European cities, the scheme operates from 750 of Paris' railway stations, allowing people to collect a bike from one station, and drop it off at another. Initially, there are 10,000 new gray bicycles, each with 3-speed gears and a wire basket. Users need a card pass to release the bicycles from their locks, which they can then use for free, for the first 30 minutes. After this, there is a fee, starting at 1 euro for 30 minutes, and rising to 4 euros for longer use. The card pass costs 29 euros per year. To help riders navigate the streets, maps and safety manuals in several languages are available at every station. The plan is to expand to 1,450 stations across Paris, with the number of bicycles increasing to over 20,000. The mayor hopes the new initiative will encourage locals and tourists to take advantage of the city's 371 kilometers of bike paths.
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ABBE HOLMES Each year, around 100 million tons of plastic is produced worldwide. Despite some efforts to recycle plastic, it often ends up dumps or clogs waterways. In the Philippines, the mounting problem of waste has prompted some businesses to find a better way. In this Manila pizza parlor, the chemically bleached boxes are out, and instead, the business uses flat bamboo baskets for takeout orders.
09:30Green matters MARK NEPOCUMENO Pizza Shop Owner
09:35MARK NEPOCUMENO We give them an additional value added for the pizza in a packaging that they can reuse.
09:40ABBE HOLMES In this Manila market, customers can purchase bags made from local organic product, including these, made from pandan leaves, which sell for slightly less than $1 US, each.
09:50Green matters REBECCA CARANDANG Store Owner
09:55REBECCA CARANDANG [non-English narration]
UNKNOWN Oh, I think baskets are better, because we can use them again and again. The baskets stay strong, as long as there are no holes.
10:10REBECCA CARANDANG [non-English narration]
ABBE HOLMES For many of the traditional craftsman, it has been a lifelong occupation, but they fear it is a dying industry.
10:20Green matters AVELINA MACATULAD Basket Weaver
UNKNOWN It saddens me, to think that no one will inherit this livelihood, but the new generation has no desire for it.
10:30ABBE HOLMES Businesses and consumers, however, are increasingly aware of the environmental issues, choosing natural products over plastics, as a 'throw away' mentality gradually gives way to reusing and recycling, the old crafts and skills may well have plenty of life left in them.
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11:00ABBE HOLMES Solar power is a potentially limitless and pure solution to the problems of fossil fuel and nuclear energy, but the big drawback is it's cost. Changing all that, however, scientists at Isreal's National Center for Solar Energy, have found a way to produce large scale solar power, at a competitive price.
11:20Green matters PROF. DAVID FAIMAN Director N.C.S.E.
PROF. DAVID FAIMAN It's possible to take technology, but the achievement is, that we separate out the collection function of a photo uptake cell, to the light conversion to electricity function, and we collect the light, instead of using a huge area of solar cells, we use an equal area of cheap glass mirrors, and they are curved in such a way to concentrate the light onto a very small solar cell, the size of just one cell, and, in this way, you concentrate the light a thousand times, and you can get a thousand times more power out of a small cell. In fact, we got one and a half thousand times, and we expect to be able to get three thousand times as much, which reduces the cost of this expensive material, almost to nothing.
12:15ABBE HOLMES The intensified sunlight, which is strong enough to carbonize a person, is directed at a solar panel. A single 10 square centimeter panel can generate the same power as a 10 meter conventional panel, in regular sunlight. This system still requires a large surface area to mass produce electricity, but the costs are similar to conventional power generation, without the fuel. A system built on 12 square kilometers in the desert, would produce 1,000 megawatts of electricity, around 10 percent of Israel's general electricity needs. Professor Faiman is also working on a home solar energy system, with a 10 square meter reflector dish.
13:00PROF. DAVID FAIMAN The average person lives in a sunny area, um, perhaps the, the deserts of California, or Texas, or New Mexico, Nevada, or Spain, Italy, South of France, North Africa, anywhere in the Middle East, would be able to a dish in his garden, about 10 square meters, that's about 3 meters by 3 meters, and generate most of the home's electricity needs. And for big power companies, utilities, they could build fields, tens of square kilometers, to provide large percentages of the country's electricity requirements. I think you can solve the energy problem for many countries, of, essentially, all sunny countries.
13:50ABBE HOLMES Large or small scale, solar could just be the energy solution.
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14:05ABBE HOLMES The world respected Hooper's Gallery in East London, showcases contemporary work by top British photographers. In an unusual exhibition, it's teamed up with the National Trust, Europe's biggest conservation organization, with over three million members in the UK alone, the result is 'Exposed,' a collection of pictures that captures the reality of climate change in the UK.
14:25Green matters ALAN WATSON The National Trust
ALAN WATSON We've all seen plenty of film footage of glaciers melting and, and so on, um, and that can, inadvertently, give the impression, if you like, that climate change is an issue that doesn't necessarily, uh, concern us here, in, in the UK. I think one of things this exhibition does is demonstrate the, actually, it's, it's happening here and now, it's affecting lawns, buildings, um, uh, all our, our wildlife.
15:00ABBE HOLMES the photographs were taken on location at National Trust properties. The Trust is responsible for conserving large areas of Britain's most beautiful landscape, including the mountain wildernesses of Wales, and the lake district, along with protected areas, such as the North York moors.
15:20[music]
ABBE HOLMES Photographer Joe Cornish has spent a large part of his professional life capturing these landscapes on film. He's already noticed changes in climate and their affects.
15:30Green matters JOE CORNISH Landscape Photographer
JOE CORNISH I suppose I have a kind of a mission, which is to, uh, to reveal the wonders of nature, uh, and to reflect my own, uh, love of nature and love of the landscape, in my work. But in addition to that, as a landscape photographer, I see the climate changing. I have done, uh, have photographed landscape now for 15 -20 years, and, during that period, uh, uh, I've observed changes, uh, I've observed, particularly, winters becoming milder and milder in Britain, uh, and, that has lead to, uh, also, to increased storms and, uh, increased strong weather effects, I believe.
16:10ALAN WATSON It's already happening. It's already impacting on our properties, and, and the Trust ow-, owns a huge variety of properties. Uh, as I say, 700 miles of coastline, 300 mansion properties, over a quarter of a million hectares of land, so we have a great varieties of properties, uh, and, and, all those properties, are, in some way, already being impacted by climate change, whether it's a longer growing season, more, um, heavy rainstorms, more instance of flooding.
16:40ABBE HOLMES Increasingly violent storms have lead to raised seas battering coastal areas. Inland, rivers overflow their banks and swill the destructive force of waterfalls. The photographs capture this drama, having a strong impact on the viewer.
16:55Green matters MAGGIE GOWAN Exhibition Curator
17:00UNKNOWN Up to a few months ago, most people weren't aware of around the world, polar ice caps. There hasn't been, I believe, a comprehensive exhibition on climate change issues about the UK, and I think, part of the reason of that is it's very difficult to capture. I think we've made a good start on this subject, um, and, you know, I'm sure we'd like to further it, if we can.
17:25ABBE HOLMES Following its showing at Hooper's Gallery, the exhibition continues with an extensive tour through the UK, no doubt, opening British people's eyes to the climate change in their own backyard.
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ABBE HOLMES The Olympic motto is, 'Faster, Higher, Stronger.' In 2008, you probably can add the word 'Greener.'
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ABBE HOLMES Since its winning bid in 2001, the Chinese government has steadily worked to clean up host city Beijing - one of the most polluted cities in the world.
18:05Green matters JACQUES ROGGE President IOC
UNKNOWN I believe that the results of the strategy will, will yield, uh, a success I, I'm optimistic for the games time. First of all, they will remove more than 1 million cars from circulation, which is, uh, huge, and will have a dramatic impact. They are continuously, uh, relocating, uh, heavy polluting industry to other places. They are switching the thermal, uh, plants - that are now fueled by coal - to gas plants. They are remediating, uh, a lot of ground. They are, uh, cleaning the water. So, I believe that, uh, this will definitely give a good result.
18:50ABBE HOLMES Tougher vehicle emissions standards have seen thousands of old taxis and buses taken off the road. Although more than 1,000 extra cars hit the city streets each day, sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide levels are now lower than in the year 2000. Public transport has been extended and upgraded - and it's cheap - with the government slashing fares, at a cost of around $130 million US a year. The nation has spent billions fighting pollution, not just in Beijing, but surrounding areas also. Hebei Province has become the new home for many of Beijing's worst offenders, however, authorities insist it's not a transfer of pollution. New plants are being built to environmental specifications, which include alternative power sources, increased recycling of water and waste, and controls over air and water pollution. More than 500 water and air quality monitoring stations have been installed, along with telephone hotlines, for the public to report environmentally damaging activities. Leading the shift to Hebei Province is Capital Steel, previously Beijing's worst polluter, spewing 18,000 tons of particulate matter into the air annually.
20:10Green matters ZHU JIMIN Chairman Capital Steel
20:15UNKNOWN To move Capital Steel, a company producing eight million tons a year, is a complex project that involves the state, Beijing government, the company, and all its employees. The state attaches great importance to the project, which attracts international attention.
20:30ABBE HOLMES By the end of 2008, a three-year tree planting program in Hebei Province will be complete. An ecological greenbelt will surround Beijing, with 12 million trees covering an area of 10,000 hectares. The 'greening' of Beijing continues, with projects under way in chemical factories, power plants, and public heating that will reduce more than half a million tons of sulfur dioxide emissions. The city is determined to stage a great Olympics and even has plans for perfect weather, despite it traditionally being a wet time of year. The plan is to fire rockets into the sky to scatter any rain clouds and so deliver the promised sunshine.
21:15Green matters ZHANG QIANG Weather Manipulation Dept.
UNKNOWN We are pretty confident about dispelling a comparatively weak cloud, based on our tests and experience, but for some heavy downpours, we face some severe challenges. We are doing experiments to try to remove these obstacles, but, I have to say we have no certainty of success.
21:30Green maters MR. WANG Beijing Resident
21:35MR. WANG [non-English narration]
UNKNOWN The weather will definitely affect the Olympic games, so I hope the government will do more to ensure the weather is good. For example, the traffic could be a mess if it rains, besides, some outdoor sports could be affected, as well, if it rains.
21:50ABBE HOLMES Certainly, world attention has triggered environmental awareness in China, nationally, waste water treatment has risen by almost 20 percent, relieving some of the strain on the water ways. In addition, the central government has doubled the amount of sewage pipeline, and has also built treatment facilities. And in Shanghai, a massive cleanup of the city's river will be completed just in time for the city to host the 2010 World Expo.
22:25[music]
Writer Producer Margaret Drane
Co-Producer Paul Drane
Creative Consultant Marilyn Higgins
Narration Abbe Holmes
Titles Lee Burgemeestre Shaun McKenna
Theme Music Margaret Drane
Post Production The Edit Shop
ABBE HOLMES Join us again, when we bring you more of what matters to keep our world green.
22:35[music]
Tape Operators Mathew Harper Erin King Damian Dixon
Technical Coordinator Lisa Hendry
Executive Producer Nick Farrow
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Green matters
00:20ABBE HOLMES Welcome to our world and your world of Green Matters. This week, Beijing, the Olympic dream goes green, and Israel gives solar power a big boost. But first, an Australian family shows we can make a difference. This Sydney home looks like any other on the street, but it's almost completely self-sufficient. The owner spent around 80,000 Australian dollars on power and water saving devices for their new home. In almost chronically drought-stricken Australia, residents are increasingly taking it upon themselves to reduce their impact on the environment. Many households utilize government rebates for energy efficient light bulbs and water saving fittings.
01:05Green matters ALICIA CAMPBELL Owner
ALICIA CAMPBELL First thing I did was to make sure all the appliances in, within the house, the toilets, um, shower heads, taps, everything I could think of, including things like the dishwasher and the washing machine were as efficient as possible for energy and electricity.
01:20ABBE HOLMES And for their new home, this family went a lot further. Before building began, a 25,000 liter sealed water storage unit was installed under the future driveway. Rainwater is fed from the roof to the underground pool, which acts as the house's in-built reservoir for drinking and household use.
01:40ALICIA CAMPBELL The reason we did it was because we knew that we wanted to make our own energy and to reduce our effect and our impact on the environment. Each house, here in Australia, apparently, produces something like 14 tons of greenhouse gases per year, and we're pretty excited that we've saved one.
02:00ABBE HOLMES A bank of solar panels generates the house's electricity, feeding excess power back to the grid. Ventilation and insulation further help control carbon emissions. And out in the garden, chickens Itchy and Scratchy, along with a large compost heap, help reduce the household's food waste.
02:20ALICIA CAMPBELL My little boy who's seven, Zane, thinks everybody's house is like this. He just doesn't understand that we feel unique at this point, and he's sees that it's essential. If we do things that he thinks are un-environmental, he's like, "but why you doing that?"
02:40ABBE HOLMES Even the family's sewage is recycled on site. Three 5,000 liter tanks, filled with bacteria, sand, and gravel, dissolve and purify the waste, and an ultraviolet filter kills any remaining germs or viruses. The water is used on the garden, but the family says it's drinking quality.
02:55ALICIA CAMPBELL The most clear difference is that we save 140,000 liters from Sydney Water's production in, um, Warragamba Dam, and, we've put 96,000 liters of wa-, very clean waste water, so it's drinking quality, into the sewer, so, that's another 96,000 we've saved, in the water sense, and we have saved one ton of greenhouse gases from being produced by having the solar panels on the roof.
03:30ABBE HOLMES For those needing help to become more eco-friendly, consultants can help ease the way.
Green matters FREDDY SHARP Easy Being Green
03:35FREDDY SHARP Sure, in the last 18 months, we've seen a real market shift in individual consumers and citizens understanding of the issue. A year and a half ago, if you mentioned cutting CO2, climate change, or global warming, people may have heard of it but may not. They wouldn't understand why they were part of it and what, what the issue was. But, certainly, since last year, the, uh, the Al Gore movie, in-, um, An Inconvenient Truth, and the Nicholas Stern Report from the UK, and action by governments and by corporations and now, by individuals, people are aware, and understand this issue quite a lot more than a year ago.
04:00WHaT can I DO?
FREDDY SHARP You can do it at the very simple level. You can take simple actions, you can convert your house to green power, which means all your electricity comes from renewable sources rather than, uh, coal-fired power stations. That has a small and po-, positive cost, maybe, $5 or $10 a week, not a huge amount. And you can simply use less energy in your home. You can use low energy light bulbs, you can use low flow shower heads, so you save water and power heating the water. You can convert to energy efficient white goods, refrigerators, TVS. Turn off your TV and your, and your hi-fi so you save on the standby power.
04:35ABBE HOLMES Despite the sunny climate, most Australians use coal-fired electricity, making them among the highest greenhouse gas emitters per capita.
04:40Green matters MICHAEL MOBBS Sustainable Homes Consultant
UNKNOWN The best thing governments can do is make it cheaper and easier. Do you know it's harder to do a sustainable house where unit offers, than it is to do an unsustainable one. How dumb is that? And the chief author of those difficulties - the governments.
05:00ABBE HOLMES By choice, however, many Australian households have taken up sustainable technologies, and the number is steadily rising.
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05:20ABBE HOLMES The Royal Horticultural Society's new Glasshouse at Wisley, England, is huge! The size of ten tennis courts, it houses exotic plants from around the world, and also gives people the chance to learn more about plants.
05:30Green matters JACKY CHAVE Education Proj. Mgr.
JACKY CHAVE The Glass has a set, which is the learning center, and the big Glass has just a fantastic learning resource. I've been with RHS for five and a half years, now, we've never had this sort of facility, before. It offers just a-, amazing opportunities for children and families and adults.
05:45ABBE HOLMES There is also a special teaching garden outside, where children can learn about planting and growing. It's a real opportunity for them to become fully immersed in nature and gardening.
06:00JACKY CHAVE This is key, this is what this was built for - primarily for school visits - it would also be used for family events and adult education events, but the focus was children, but, also secondary school children. We've got a younger group today, but it'll be secondary school children, as well.
06:15ABBE HOLMES These school children had the chance to learn about gardening and planting, from award winning designer Cleve West, who showed them the basics of how to plants into the ground correctly.
06:25Green matters CLEVE WEST Garden Designer
CLEVE WEST They're amazingly interested. I, I can't remember being that attentive when I was their a-, their age at school, and, they really put on interest at everything that's going on, I mean, naturally, they're drawn towards the water, and, uh, we've had a duck that flew in for the occasion, and we've got water boatmen, and the water's only been in there three days, so we've got quite a lot of insect life already.
06:45ABBE HOLMES The children were fascinated with all aspects of their experience and enthusiastically joined in activities.
06:55UNKNOWN It's quite nice to grow plants, and,that it can easily help the environment and beetles and bugs.
07:00UNKNOWN I like looking at the plants and creatures.
07:05UNKNOWN I enjoy looking into the pond, and, um, tasting some of the onion.
07:10ABBE HOLMES For these children, their visit to the Glasshouse was a truly hands-on experience, and an early lesson in the pleasures of planting and growing.
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07:30ABBE HOLMES The city of Paris has introduced a large scale bicycle hire scheme in a bid to cut pollution and city congestion.
07:35Green matters BERTRAND DELANOE Mayor
UNKNOWN Each time I meet with my colleagues from the big cities, worldwide, whatever their political opinion, we all have one problem to solve: we are a great number of people, in a small space.
07:55ABBE HOLMES Based on similar systems in other European cities, the scheme operates from 750 of Paris' railway stations, allowing people to collect a bike from one station, and drop it off at another. Initially, there are 10,000 new gray bicycles, each with 3-speed gears and a wire basket. Users need a card pass to release the bicycles from their locks, which they can then use for free, for the first 30 minutes. After this, there is a fee, starting at 1 euro for 30 minutes, and rising to 4 euros for longer use. The card pass costs 29 euros per year. To help riders navigate the streets, maps and safety manuals in several languages are available at every station. The plan is to expand to 1,450 stations across Paris, with the number of bicycles increasing to over 20,000. The mayor hopes the new initiative will encourage locals and tourists to take advantage of the city's 371 kilometers of bike paths.
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ABBE HOLMES Each year, around 100 million tons of plastic is produced worldwide. Despite some efforts to recycle plastic, it often ends up dumps or clogs waterways. In the Philippines, the mounting problem of waste has prompted some businesses to find a better way. In this Manila pizza parlor, the chemically bleached boxes are out, and instead, the business uses flat bamboo baskets for takeout orders.
09:30Green matters MARK NEPOCUMENO Pizza Shop Owner
09:35MARK NEPOCUMENO We give them an additional value added for the pizza in a packaging that they can reuse.
09:40ABBE HOLMES In this Manila market, customers can purchase bags made from local organic product, including these, made from pandan leaves, which sell for slightly less than $1 US, each.
09:50Green matters REBECCA CARANDANG Store Owner
09:55REBECCA CARANDANG [non-English narration]
UNKNOWN Oh, I think baskets are better, because we can use them again and again. The baskets stay strong, as long as there are no holes.
10:10REBECCA CARANDANG [non-English narration]
ABBE HOLMES For many of the traditional craftsman, it has been a lifelong occupation, but they fear it is a dying industry.
10:20Green matters AVELINA MACATULAD Basket Weaver
UNKNOWN It saddens me, to think that no one will inherit this livelihood, but the new generation has no desire for it.
10:30ABBE HOLMES Businesses and consumers, however, are increasingly aware of the environmental issues, choosing natural products over plastics, as a 'throw away' mentality gradually gives way to reusing and recycling, the old crafts and skills may well have plenty of life left in them.
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11:00ABBE HOLMES Solar power is a potentially limitless and pure solution to the problems of fossil fuel and nuclear energy, but the big drawback is it's cost. Changing all that, however, scientists at Isreal's National Center for Solar Energy, have found a way to produce large scale solar power, at a competitive price.
11:20Green matters PROF. DAVID FAIMAN Director N.C.S.E.
PROF. DAVID FAIMAN It's possible to take technology, but the achievement is, that we separate out the collection function of a photo uptake cell, to the light conversion to electricity function, and we collect the light, instead of using a huge area of solar cells, we use an equal area of cheap glass mirrors, and they are curved in such a way to concentrate the light onto a very small solar cell, the size of just one cell, and, in this way, you concentrate the light a thousand times, and you can get a thousand times more power out of a small cell. In fact, we got one and a half thousand times, and we expect to be able to get three thousand times as much, which reduces the cost of this expensive material, almost to nothing.
12:15ABBE HOLMES The intensified sunlight, which is strong enough to carbonize a person, is directed at a solar panel. A single 10 square centimeter panel can generate the same power as a 10 meter conventional panel, in regular sunlight. This system still requires a large surface area to mass produce electricity, but the costs are similar to conventional power generation, without the fuel. A system built on 12 square kilometers in the desert, would produce 1,000 megawatts of electricity, around 10 percent of Israel's general electricity needs. Professor Faiman is also working on a home solar energy system, with a 10 square meter reflector dish.
13:00PROF. DAVID FAIMAN The average person lives in a sunny area, um, perhaps the, the deserts of California, or Texas, or New Mexico, Nevada, or Spain, Italy, South of France, North Africa, anywhere in the Middle East, would be able to a dish in his garden, about 10 square meters, that's about 3 meters by 3 meters, and generate most of the home's electricity needs. And for big power companies, utilities, they could build fields, tens of square kilometers, to provide large percentages of the country's electricity requirements. I think you can solve the energy problem for many countries, of, essentially, all sunny countries.
13:50ABBE HOLMES Large or small scale, solar could just be the energy solution.
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14:05ABBE HOLMES The world respected Hooper's Gallery in East London, showcases contemporary work by top British photographers. In an unusual exhibition, it's teamed up with the National Trust, Europe's biggest conservation organization, with over three million members in the UK alone, the result is 'Exposed,' a collection of pictures that captures the reality of climate change in the UK.
14:25Green matters ALAN WATSON The National Trust
ALAN WATSON We've all seen plenty of film footage of glaciers melting and, and so on, um, and that can, inadvertently, give the impression, if you like, that climate change is an issue that doesn't necessarily, uh, concern us here, in, in the UK. I think one of things this exhibition does is demonstrate the, actually, it's, it's happening here and now, it's affecting lawns, buildings, um, uh, all our, our wildlife.
15:00ABBE HOLMES the photographs were taken on location at National Trust properties. The Trust is responsible for conserving large areas of Britain's most beautiful landscape, including the mountain wildernesses of Wales, and the lake district, along with protected areas, such as the North York moors.
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ABBE HOLMES Photographer Joe Cornish has spent a large part of his professional life capturing these landscapes on film. He's already noticed changes in climate and their affects.
15:30Green matters JOE CORNISH Landscape Photographer
JOE CORNISH I suppose I have a kind of a mission, which is to, uh, to reveal the wonders of nature, uh, and to reflect my own, uh, love of nature and love of the landscape, in my work. But in addition to that, as a landscape photographer, I see the climate changing. I have done, uh, have photographed landscape now for 15 -20 years, and, during that period, uh, uh, I've observed changes, uh, I've observed, particularly, winters becoming milder and milder in Britain, uh, and, that has lead to, uh, also, to increased storms and, uh, increased strong weather effects, I believe.
16:10ALAN WATSON It's already happening. It's already impacting on our properties, and, and the Trust ow-, owns a huge variety of properties. Uh, as I say, 700 miles of coastline, 300 mansion properties, over a quarter of a million hectares of land, so we have a great varieties of properties, uh, and, and, all those properties, are, in some way, already being impacted by climate change, whether it's a longer growing season, more, um, heavy rainstorms, more instance of flooding.
16:40ABBE HOLMES Increasingly violent storms have lead to raised seas battering coastal areas. Inland, rivers overflow their banks and swill the destructive force of waterfalls. The photographs capture this drama, having a strong impact on the viewer.
16:55Green matters MAGGIE GOWAN Exhibition Curator
17:00UNKNOWN Up to a few months ago, most people weren't aware of around the world, polar ice caps. There hasn't been, I believe, a comprehensive exhibition on climate change issues about the UK, and I think, part of the reason of that is it's very difficult to capture. I think we've made a good start on this subject, um, and, you know, I'm sure we'd like to further it, if we can.
17:25ABBE HOLMES Following its showing at Hooper's Gallery, the exhibition continues with an extensive tour through the UK, no doubt, opening British people's eyes to the climate change in their own backyard.
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ABBE HOLMES The Olympic motto is, 'Faster, Higher, Stronger.' In 2008, you probably can add the word 'Greener.'
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ABBE HOLMES Since its winning bid in 2001, the Chinese government has steadily worked to clean up host city Beijing - one of the most polluted cities in the world.
18:05Green matters JACQUES ROGGE President IOC
UNKNOWN I believe that the results of the strategy will, will yield, uh, a success I, I'm optimistic for the games time. First of all, they will remove more than 1 million cars from circulation, which is, uh, huge, and will have a dramatic impact. They are continuously, uh, relocating, uh, heavy polluting industry to other places. They are switching the thermal, uh, plants - that are now fueled by coal - to gas plants. They are remediating, uh, a lot of ground. They are, uh, cleaning the water. So, I believe that, uh, this will definitely give a good result.
18:50ABBE HOLMES Tougher vehicle emissions standards have seen thousands of old taxis and buses taken off the road. Although more than 1,000 extra cars hit the city streets each day, sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide levels are now lower than in the year 2000. Public transport has been extended and upgraded - and it's cheap - with the government slashing fares, at a cost of around $130 million US a year. The nation has spent billions fighting pollution, not just in Beijing, but surrounding areas also. Hebei Province has become the new home for many of Beijing's worst offenders, however, authorities insist it's not a transfer of pollution. New plants are being built to environmental specifications, which include alternative power sources, increased recycling of water and waste, and controls over air and water pollution. More than 500 water and air quality monitoring stations have been installed, along with telephone hotlines, for the public to report environmentally damaging activities. Leading the shift to Hebei Province is Capital Steel, previously Beijing's worst polluter, spewing 18,000 tons of particulate matter into the air annually.
20:10Green matters ZHU JIMIN Chairman Capital Steel
20:15UNKNOWN To move Capital Steel, a company producing eight million tons a year, is a complex project that involves the state, Beijing government, the company, and all its employees. The state attaches great importance to the project, which attracts international attention.
20:30ABBE HOLMES By the end of 2008, a three-year tree planting program in Hebei Province will be complete. An ecological greenbelt will surround Beijing, with 12 million trees covering an area of 10,000 hectares. The 'greening' of Beijing continues, with projects under way in chemical factories, power plants, and public heating that will reduce more than half a million tons of sulfur dioxide emissions. The city is determined to stage a great Olympics and even has plans for perfect weather, despite it traditionally being a wet time of year. The plan is to fire rockets into the sky to scatter any rain clouds and so deliver the promised sunshine.
21:15Green matters ZHANG QIANG Weather Manipulation Dept.
UNKNOWN We are pretty confident about dispelling a comparatively weak cloud, based on our tests and experience, but for some heavy downpours, we face some severe challenges. We are doing experiments to try to remove these obstacles, but, I have to say we have no certainty of success.
21:30Green maters MR. WANG Beijing Resident
21:35MR. WANG [non-English narration]
UNKNOWN The weather will definitely affect the Olympic games, so I hope the government will do more to ensure the weather is good. For example, the traffic could be a mess if it rains, besides, some outdoor sports could be affected, as well, if it rains.
21:50ABBE HOLMES Certainly, world attention has triggered environmental awareness in China, nationally, waste water treatment has risen by almost 20 percent, relieving some of the strain on the water ways. In addition, the central government has doubled the amount of sewage pipeline, and has also built treatment facilities. And in Shanghai, a massive cleanup of the city's river will be completed just in time for the city to host the 2010 World Expo.
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Writer Producer Margaret Drane
Co-Producer Paul Drane
Creative Consultant Marilyn Higgins
Narration Abbe Holmes
Titles Lee Burgemeestre Shaun McKenna
Theme Music Margaret Drane
Post Production The Edit Shop
ABBE HOLMES Join us again, when we bring you more of what matters to keep our world green.
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Tape Operators Mathew Harper Erin King Damian Dixon
Technical Coordinator Lisa Hendry
Executive Producer Nick Farrow
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